I'm a Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute in London, a writer here and there on this and that and strangely, one of the global experts on the metal scandium, one of the rare earths. An odd thing to be but someone does have to be such and in this flavour of our universe I am. I have written for The Times, Daily Telegraph, Express, Independent, City AM, Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer and online for the ASI, IEA, Social Affairs Unit, Spectator, The Guardian, The Register and Techcentralstation. I've also ghosted pieces for several UK politicians in many of the UK papers, including the Daily Sport.

Nokia's Windows 8 Phone: So, Umm, That's It Hunh?

I think it is safe to say that the technology world was not amazed nor astonished by today’s announcement of Nokia‘s new Windows 8 phone line. Partly this is, of course, because we knew roughly what was coming before the announcement. It would be a new Nokia phone, or several of them, running Microsoft‘s Windows 8 for phones. So it isn’t that they could surprise us with the OS or anything. However, while there’s a great deal of dutiful reporting of what was announced there’s not very much, if any, of the ecstatic joy that accompanies the new phone releases of certain other companies.

One thing that many reports emphasise is “wireless charging”. And I have to admit that as someone living over here in Europe that seems to be a solution to yesterday’s problem. Yes, certainly, when every phone manufacturer uses a different adaptor or charger interface then the idea of going away, or even out for more than eight hours, can be discomforting. For while you’re out you might need charging but cannot find anyone with your interface. Or, worse, going off with your family and finding that your Nokia charger does not fit the wife’s iPhone one nor the three variants of Sony, Samsung and some incredible Chinese something or other that the children have. I speak from experience here you understand. In such a situation wireless charging sounds just marvellous.

Yet, over here in Europe at least, we now have one standard phone to charger connector. The EU sat everyone down and snarled at them until they agreed (the argument was that all that copper tied up in all those different adaptors was a waste of resources). Given that wherever you go that has electricity there will be someone with a charger and that charger will charge your phone, this idea of wireless charging seems like a solution to a problem we no longer have. You might still have it, to be sure, but we don’t.

The prices of the new phones, which will be available later this year, weren’t immediately available.

New sexy technology is one thing. But what is the price we must pay for it? Just as examples, it would be one thing to offer something better than an Apple iPhone at a higher price that an iPhone. A daring strategy even that would be. Offering something as good as an iPhone at $50 would be a real winner. So it’s not really possible to understand how good this offering is without knowing what the price points are going to be.

Then we get faster LCD screens, better camera software, the ability to use the screen with gloves on….and, well, maybe this is all terribly exciting to some segment of the public. Maybe it isn’t. You can most assuredly make up your own mind as to whether it is exciting to you. But the best averaging of what everybody thinks that we have is the market. In this case, the stock market in the shares of Nokia:

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You don’t have to own an Apple product to be a Microsoft hating sycophant, which pretty much fits then entire tech journalism industry. Your article is as worthless as you are.

The iPhone 5 will release with little to nothing new to show for it. We already know it looks like the 4S, which looked like the 4. The only difference will be a two-tone color. The OS will be the same as well. But you’ll write an article raving about it nonetheless.

Nokia puts out two phones that look far better and are far more elegant, yet to take a dump on it. Par for the course.

The device was ok as an incremental improvement but their timing and delivery was poor. They should have held off until they had more to interesting things to demonstrate, carrier deals to affirm, and price levels to announce. Putting out a rather ho-hum presentation without real launch details blunts the message.

Of course, it’s up to their competitors to pick up the dropped ball and run with it. Motorola/Google apparently didn’t notice Nokia/Microsoft’s fumble because they were too busy dropping the ball on their launch. And kicking it away from themselves.

It will be interesting to see what Amazon brings to the game tomorrow.

After reading your article I am more determine to purchase the windows 8 phone. Your article does no justice when blindsided by your own stupidest thoughts what is a good product or not. On the one hand, I May praise you for writing a negative article, it will only give your readers a chance to go out and see for themselves Microsoft and Nokia announce today a damn good product and ready to compete. So, you may have done justice for the readers. But, for yourself, Umm, That’s Huuh!

Why so critical? No mention in your review of the display, nor the camera features? How about the mapping features, styling? Surely you can see some features that have merit, how about some pros and cons?? Rather than presenting your reader with facts and insight, your review is empty,.., wondering why I waste my time writing this.

you write about business and technology? the way this article reads you have no business writing about technology. simply awful. what was the point? to use your phrase “so, umm, that’s it hunh?” what earth shattering, world of technology news or event was supposed to accompany Nokia’s announcement?

i suppose the new iPhone getting features that every other manufacturer’s flagship phones already have will once again be deemed revolutionary…and i suspect your future article’s about same will point out just that.

The fact that winmobile is an OS that is late to the dance, mitigates the opportunity for far reaching market share near, medium or long term. I personally was a big fan of Nokia mobile devices and still have a few in my “museum of past mobiles” which is a rubbermaid crate I nostalgically continue to allow occupancy in my humble abode. The Nokia executive failings, including the absurdity of network operator subsidies which they relied upon for the vast and yes PAST market dominance and the multitude of models globally have left the former stalwart in a forlorn place that they may never leave. I’d rather not trot out the horse and the glue factory euphemism but it may ….hmmmm be apt

I agree with the article points. In essence, Nokia did not unveil anything new really, just an upgrade to their already existing line of phones which have been on the market for a few months – and which were immediately made obsolete by Microsoft’s refusal to upgrade from WP7.5 to WP8. Not a first time that MS has screwed an OEM/partner. And this whole excitement about wireless charging is premature. It will use a charging pad which is – guess what – plugged into the wall socket! So in addition to an old fashioned charger (comes free with the phone) you will be tempted to buy the charging pad so that you can show off this miraculous feature? Give me a break. This is nothing but a gimmick, which has almost no practical use. Until you can charge your device the moment you enter a room with nearby socket and wirelessly ‘tune into it’ and thus refill you battery you cannot talk about true wireless charging. When this technology actually does come, the question may be asked will the café and restaurant owners charge you extra because you are piggy backing on their power lines? Another big ‘if’ is the operating system itself. Yes, the Windows Phone maybe the very reason why Nokia declares bankruptcy soon. Placing all your bets as well as your remaining cash reserves on a system which has been around for two years and which despite the glowing reviews (and also a long list of features it lacks in comparison with other OS’) have not manage to garner more than the poultry 4% may be seen as a precipitous move. I know what I am talking about; I have been a devout WP7 user since its ‘no copy-paste’ inception and have changed 3 devices since WP7 launch almost 2 years ago. I switched to it from Android because of its speed, fluidity, stability, and ease of use. However, there were a lot of things that this system lacked and which was available on other platforms: no customization of ringtones and other notifications save for the stock ones which were mostly horrible. Partial ringtone customization came with the Mango update, but you had to use desktop Zune and do a few alterations to your mp3 file before you could transfer them to the device and actually use them as a ringtone. Other notifications are still not customizable (after 2 years on the market?!?). Here are a few more things this OS does not do at all or does poorly: - no file manager - no Bluetooth transfers - Need Zune to transfer files. Zune will only transfer photos, videos & music. All other files need to email/upload - no centralized notification page - text messages can only be deleted one by one or the whole thread - Taskmanager has no option to shut down apps you don’t want running in the background - Search and Back button cannot be de-activated in apps or games and easily touched by accident - No way to close an app except pressing back button all the way to the first screen - Cannot close music player, can only pause. Music player on lock screen will stay until you reboot - Cannot select multiple pictures for deleting, sending or uploading. They must be done one at a time - Forwarded emails cannot be edited - If both wi-fi and data connection are available which one it chooses to use is unpredictable (HTC phones have a very spotty WiFi connection) - No global search button for phone content - no flash, Java, and Silverlight support - Internet Explorer has no Forward button for page - no way to back up SMS, call history There is a score of other shortcomings, especially the App market. We waited almost two years to get Skype (doesn’t MS own it?!), WhatsApp, Viber (still in beta stage – no phone calls allowed), etc. I know that some of these things will be addressed in Win Phone 8 like the resizing of the tiles. Personally, the new screen looks to busy on the eye, like a bunch of square widgets squeezed to tightly on the screen. However, the bigger problem is that despite its numbering 7, now 8, which suggests a progression, the Win Phone 8 is actually a new platform. The apps written for it will not be backward compatible so my 9 months old HTC Titan is obsolete, just like the first line of Lumia phones. Thanks Microsoft, you have done it again!